The mystery and art of the apothecary / by C.J.S. Thompson.

  • Thompson, C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel), 1862-1943.
Date:
[1929]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The mystery and art of the apothecary / by C.J.S. Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of similar influence and intercourse between Babylonia and Egypt. Judging from a Babylonian record which is believed to date from 2250 b.c., there was trade in drugs between that country and Egypt at that period. This tablet pur¬ ports to be an order given by a dealer in drugs and has been translated as follows : “ 10 Shekels of Cypress oil. 3 Shekels of oil of Myrrh. 5 Shekels of oil of Cedar. To be obtained from abroad.” From another tablet of the same period it would appear that the drug dealers of Sippura at that time had their stalls or shops together in one street. Our knowledge of the preparations employed in medicine by the Babylonians and Assyrians is chiefly derived from the great library of clay tablets that was discovered in the palace of Assur-banipal, King of Assyria, who ruled Nineveh from 668 to 626 b.c. About eight hundred fragments of these consist of medical texts, mainly of Babylonian origin; and, as these are copies of much earlier records, we have in them the accumulated experience of many previous generations which probably revert to a period between 2000 and 3000 B.C. About 250 drugs of vegetable origin are mentioned and 120 mineral substances. Of the former still in use may be mentioned asafcetida, henbane, chamomile, fennel, calendula, sagapentum, storax, myrrh, almond oil, saffron, liquorice root, lupin, pomegranate, poppy, mandrake, turmeric and many others equally well known. Among the chemical substances are alum, arsenic